Croatia is to start using the euro from January 2023 after completing the final legal steps on Tuesday in Brussels to adopt the European Union's common currency.
"European integration is ongoing despite all the challenges that we are facing," Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said in a press conference against the background of growing EU economic turmoil.
EU finance ministers met in the Belgian capital to give the final sign-off on three legal acts to admit Croatia to the eurozone, the group of EU countries using the common currency.
One of the adopted legal acts sets the conversion rate between the euro and the Croatian kuna at 7.53450 kuna per €1.
Despite the "very strong challenges" of high inflation and dented economic growth in the EU, Marić said before the meeting that he is pleased to see his country switch to the euro.
Croatia's entry comes with the backing of the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) after the country met key convergence criteria and is the first new admission since Lithuania in 2015.
Countries joining the 27-member strong bloc are obliged to use the euro but require a low government deficit along with stable inflation and exchange rates between their national currencies and the euro.
Denmark, a member of the bloc prior to the 1992 signing of the European treaty that laid the foundation for the euro, is the only country that secured the right to keep its currency, the krone.
Other EU countries yet to adopt the currency include Poland and Hungary. Sweden abandoned plans to join the euro after a referendum failed to receive the public's support.
Croatia's admission expands the euro area to 20 members but follows a fall in public support in the country, with people fearing price increases as a result.
